The Art of Losing by Clare Cavanagh
I loved how her emotions really showed through in her essay, even as she then went on to elucidate her points in a very reasoned and level-headed way. I could feel her frustration at the various complaints that have been brought to translators, especially of poetry: not faithful enough, not literal enough, ruined the form, strayed from the meaning, tsk tsk tsk. If anything I feel a little guilty because I have been that person pointing the fingers and asking all of those questions, but of course, I also sympathise because I have struggled with those issues too. This line hit hardest, "But what are the other activities that we human beings perform so flawlessly against which the translation of poetry is being measured and found wanting?" I can't remember which class it was (was it this one) where we read an interview of David Mitchell who said, "As a writer I can be bad, but I can't be wrong. A translator can be good, but can never be right." This tickled me so much that now I have it written as a note on my desktop screen.
Wisława Szymborska’s Translators Talk About the Poet
I find this whole "need for feminine models in the socially visible and operative translation discourses" thing a little overstated. How much presence do these gender/sexual metaphors actually have in translation practice today? Is this really how people ever conceptualised translation or is this just the way a few people liked to philosophise translation? I can stand behind not having words like "nurse" or "lawyer" be gendered but the idea of these metaphors being a real issue worthy of my time is not (yet) convincing to me.
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